The prosecution appealed the dismissal in the case of the murder of Diego Fernández Lima, the teenager who was killed in 1984 and whose bones were found more than 40 years later in a house in Coghlan. The appeal against the dismissal of Cristian Graf, the former schoolmate accused of the crime of concealment, was filed at the last moment by prosecutor Martín López Perrando, in charge of the National Prosecutor's Office for Criminal and Correctional Matters No. 61. The same resolution was made by the plaintiff, composed of Javier Fernández Lima, the victim's brother. On the side of the representative of the Public Prosecutor's Office, López Perrando explained that “the crime of concealment is an autonomous crime” that must be analyzed “separately.” “I understand that while it is clear that the homicide of Diego Fernández occurred more than 40 years ago, with all that entails, it is no less true that due to the lack of a formal accusation directed at a presumed author, it is not prudent to consider that the statute of limitations has expired, since -for example- the commission of new facts could interrupt the term of said prescription. The discovery did not seem to surprise them, but rather, it was the effect of bad luck,” he remarked. In turn, he pointed out that “the nervousness indicated by the witnesses and the statements related to the preservation of a garden plant, explain the prior knowledge of the grave by Graf and his intention that it remain hidden.” Then, in his writing, he affirmed that, once the remains were found on May 20, “his concern turned into an occupation when he externalized his concealment conduct.” The prosecutor emphasized that in this case, the concealment was a continuous action that, at most, only ceased with the discovery of the remains on May 20, and that, therefore, it is not time-barred. On the plaintiff's side, a document accessed by the Argentine News agency, they stated that they are “facing a person who remembers nothing. He doesn't remember the disappearance of my brother, doesn't remember his schoolmates, doesn't remember the name of the lawyer who advised him when the present case began; not even -it seems- making an effort to remember.” “Not only did these remains allow us to prove that my brother had received a sharp cutting wound, but we also saw how the specialists from the Forensic Anthropology Team explained to us that Diego had suffered many cuts in such a way that it could be concluded that an attempt was made to dismember him, as well as described how it had been hidden all this time,” they pointed out. In their writing, they expressed their anger over the 41 years with no news in the case: “In our case, over these more than 40 years, the state bodies have not delved into, or even minimally investigated the context in which the disappearance of Diego first occurred -which even cost his father his life- and now the concealment of his violent death, with the burial of the body in the garden of one of his schoolmates.” “We know nothing about the Graf family, their backgrounds, or the lifestyle of its members at the time of the events. In such a way, the lack of an author prevents the declaration of prescription that must be formulated concretely,” the prosecutor pointed out. López Perrando recalled that the discovery of the skeletal remains occurred on May 20, 2025, when a group of workers was raising a dividing wall in the house at Av. Congreso 3748, adjacent to the accused's home. “First of all, no one from that house called the Police. For now, the only thing we have is a kind of amnesia on the part of the main accused, who does not even remember the disappearance of Diego, in contrast to his grade-mates, who remember it extensively,” they added. “This situation must be reversed and progress must be made in clarifying the truth of everything that happened, otherwise the responsibility of the Argentine state in a flagrant violation of the human rights of the Fernández Lima family will be evident,” they concluded.
